You Can’t Learn Anything From a Pop-Up.

But you can learn a lot from our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get the latest in learning.

Your eLearning Courses Have to be Mobile... or People Won't Watch Them

June 17, 2016

Imagine Netflix stuck with their DVD-by-mail system. That model would no longer fit in with today’s expectation for on-demand video, and few people would likely use the service, despite all the great shows Netflix produces.

But Netflix didn’t. They built an on-demand streaming service, which fits in perfectly with today’s culture. Now, Netflix – which is worth more than $30 billion –is essentially a habit for many people, and plays an integral part in their lives.

The point is, no matter how strong content is, it also needs to be in the right channel for it to become truly popular. And that certainly holds true for elearning, as no matter how strong the elearning content you provide your employees is, if you aren’t using the right channel to distribute it, your employees won’t watch it.

So what’s that channel? Data shows that people need to be able to access elearning content via a mobile device, in bite-sized chunks.

Data: Your elearning courses need to be mobile and “snackable”

The answer to the first question was an astounding yes. Specifically, our research found offering your employees the ability to learn is key to keeping them engaged:

That’s good, as learning doesn’t just keep your employees engaged, it also improves their performance over time. The bigger question then becomes how to offer courses that people will actually watch.

In our research, we found two keys to getting people to watch elearning courses:

They need to be able to access courses on their mobile devices

The courses need to be broken into small, bite-sized pieces.

Start with the mobile first. I’m sure you don’t need stats to know people spend a lot of time on their cell phone, but here’s a pretty big one: more than one billion people – one billion! – have taken a course on their smart phone.

Practically speaking, that means many people expect courses to be available on their smartphones. Just like Netflix had to go to a streaming service, the elearning courses you offer need to be mobile-friendly if you want people to actually watch them.

But being mobile isn’t enough – our research found that people want their elearning courses to be “snackable” as well. And that means having courses that are broken into smaller bits, or else people won’t have the patience to sit through them.

If you have your courses available in segmented bits, and people can access it on their smartphone, you make it easy for people to integrate learning into their daily lives. And that drastically increases the chances that learning becomes a habit for them, which will result in an engaged, constantly improving employee.

The takeaway

The findings of our guide are pretty straightforward – people spend a lot of time on their smartphones, and they have relatively short attention spans. The more your elearning program fits in with that reality, the higher chance you’ll have of getting your people to use it.